Newbiesailor,
So after you attach the life jacket and right the boat, do you then sail the rest of the day with a life jacket dangling from the top of your mast?

If you are not racing, why not just go with the low-cost method suggested of attaching a gallon plastic milk jug to the top of your sail? Spray-paint the INSIDE of the jug to match some color in your sail, and nobody will notice -- or else, if you are creative, it will become the "in" thing to do.

Swimming out to the end of your mast is potentially fraught with perils, which I will not go into here.

We were at a race at Lake Cheney with winds of 35 with gusts as high as 50 mph. At the Skipper's meeting the RC suggested anyone with a 16 should seriously consider reefing their main. Which brought lots of testosterone laden chuckles and a "Hey man, you ever try to light a 16 main?". We all laughed and off the beach we go. Before the start of the first race, just trying to be stationary and wait for the other fleet starts a BIG gust hits us and my wife had the jib cleated. So here we go in a slomo blow over we can do nothing about. As we're scooting to the top of the rail I kept telling Lynn to just jump into the main, so I jumped, and she's still up ther fighting it, she manages to turn around, now facing the tramp and the boat's almost on its side, she finally lets go and while sliding on her belly down the tramp her harness hooks into the center lacing, I'm a couple of good hard crawl strokes behind watching her going turtle with the boat, I dive under the tramp (with a life jacket on) to pull the quick pin on that harness, drag her out, hang on the hull with her until she stopped coughing up water, then right the boat, sail to shore (trapped out by necessity of the wind) while she sat on the tramp crying. Praise God the harness had a quick release.

Twenty years later, we now have three beautiful sons that are into cat sailing. Safety devices are wonderful things.

By the way...after righting the boat, I did happen to sail across the starting line, so we would get a DNF instead of a DNS. We went to the beach, reefed the main, and she sat on the tramp, didn't cleat the jib, holding the sheet tight to here chest and letting her arms straighten during gusts and we finished third in second race. Thats's my better half.

well put captain dave, i think you concluded the debates over the bob... by the way, does the bob stay on when trailering and does it hit the ground if you step the mast solo? Mary, when attaching the life jacket, if you clip it to the halyard, it SHOULD slide down to the bottom, the milk jug... even thats a bit too cheap for me, and flatlander, thats an incredibly scary story there, glad to here you both came out of it ok

It stays on the mast while trailering and I haven`t encountered any problems while stepping the mast...other than jeers and guffaws (figuratively speaking of course)...But I think that will pass.

Dave

Well, I'm outta here; but before I go:
[color:"orange"] Captain Dave - It was not your initial post that got my attention and desire to respond. The repetition in later comments you made did the trick to encourage me to add my opinion to the discussion. Your suggestion that I am having a bad day because I think you are pushing your opinions too hard is an interesting way to attempt to belittle or discredit anyone who does not share your particular bias. Captain Dave, is that an ego thing? Don't bother to answer, that's a rhetorical question.[/color]
[color:"red"] Mary, "any man who is intelligent enough". So not only am I having a bad day, I am also dumb. Cute. [/color]
[color:"purple"]Rick, I am certainly glad that you love the Bob on the Wave. Has anyone ever seen Rick on an H16 with a Bob?[/color]
[color:"green"]Well it has been interesting folks. Best wishes and hope you all keep Bobbing happily along. Heh heh. [/color]

Hey Whoa,

Too bad you STILL haven`t re-read the whole post like I suggested. I made NO "additional comments" or "repetition" in reference to my list (PRIOR to your post) as you suggest - only an exchange about some tools with HobieNick and a joke about plastic milk-jugs, duct-tape and a Baby-Bob!

...Also too bad that you think someone is calling you "dumb" - that is not how I interpret the comments from others.

And, too bad you think this whole exercise is some sort of attempt to force my personal views through a process of (to quote you) "brain-washing, intensity, arguments" and acting like an "expert".

The list I compiled regarding "what worked for me and what didn`t" was created by a newbie (me). It was labelled clearly as such - not what one would expect from someone acting as an "expert".

Finally, rather than recognizing that your choice of words - "brainwashed, intensity and experts" - in describing my list/views (along with the views of others) may be perceived as an insult, you instead choose to believe that I have accused you of "having a bad day" simply because you do not agree with me. Now, that really IS an [color:"red"]"interesting way to attempt to belittle or discredit anyone who does not share your particular bias". [/color]

Yup...too bad! You`re batting a thousand - on missing the point!

Hey, Whoa, I didn't mean to say you or anybody else is dumb if you don't have a bob. I said: "...any man who is intelligent enough to care about his safety and the safety of his friends and family who may be sailing with him is a very cool and sexy guy in my book..."

So what I really meant was that if you are bobless, you are not cool and sexy.

Of course, at my age, I don't really have a "book" any more.

P.S. Please understand that I just worry a lot about you guys and I think a bob might save a life. I have been witness to many, many boats turtling -- and turtling very rapidly -- upon capsize. Being a mother and a grandmother, I am naturally concerned for the safety of small children and novice sailors. I just can't help it.

Check out the Formula 16 Forum here, the thread subject "Lucky Escapes," which just popped up today.

[quote]Hey Nick,

I actually carry your list of tools (not the Murrays tool) on the boat plus a rigging knife with a marlin spike (handy) - though my multitool is not a genuine Leatherman - nice. I use large stainless steel (spring loaded) carabiners from the hardware store to simply clip them to the underside of the tramp lacing...It looks like a chinese hardware store under there! - everything is hanging from the ceiling.

A question for you regarding the Hobie tool; on one end of the tool there is about a 1 inch long protrusion that is about 1/4 inch wide and concave/convex... I cannot figue out what the heck it is for. It looks real handy too -- I just don`t know for what...so - for now it remains UNHANDY!

Dave I have always used that protrousion for poping cams, I have also used it to pry on things on occasion but it bends pretty easily. I also dont carry a real leatherman, severall of my friends do carry them and I dont like them, instead i prefer to use a gerber multitool, they slide out. I have two, one which slides out manually and another which I dont like as much that pops out automatically, but the tools on that one are not as good. in any case I keep my tool in the pocket of my lifejacket and use it on an Hourly basis.

Is there anything aside from a mast bob that will stop a turtle if the wind is blowing hard against the underside of the tramp when you go over? The last time I was out, 20 knot winds with larger gusts, I got blown over even though my main was sheeted out as far as it would go. The mast went under and I was turtled faster than I could imagine--seemed like less than 10 seconds. I'm not convinced that my mast is sealed given how fast it went under, but even if it was, with that hard of wind, would it stay up anyway? I was out solo of course and had to wait a while in the rain for a boat to help me out. Definately don't want a repeat of that. I'm not crazy about the mast bob either, but will get one if need be.

I don't know about stopping the turtle but in the wind you described, you should be able to get it out of the turtle yourself and back up again. If you couldn't get it out of the turtle then maybe your mast has water in it. If you get to the stern of a hull and pull with your righting line the bows should come up, then fall over to the lee side. You end up with the mast into the wind and the wind helping you to right the boat. If you travel the jib on the down side all the way out and pull on the jib sheet (without cleating it) the jib will trap air and help lift the mast. It is better if the boat is turned at that point so the mast is angled off the wind a few degrees. As the boat comes up let the jib sheet go and get to the other side so it doesn't just keep going over again. I would leave the jib uncleated and sail in on the main.

Howard